Living Things and Their Habitats
In this first lesson pupils should be taught to:
• Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
• Use a keys, tables and diagrams to help group animals
• Identify and name a variety of living things from their local and wider environment
The following summary is based on notes and guidance from the National Curriculum.
The pupils will be classifying living things and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions, discussing their findings with peers and the staff. Instead of using written methods discussion could also be assessed through and activity like question, feeling, learning.
The pupils have the opportunity to group and classifying living things, carrying out simple comparisons using Carroll diagrams and Venn diagrams. They can also be given the chance to work independently by finding out more facts using secondary sources of information. In this lesson sweets have been used to make the activity more engaging. I also like to make use of secondary resources with more information such as top trumps cards including deadliest predators, creatures of the deep and deadly 60.
The resources can be used as a stimulus to talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying. They should begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships between animals that share similar features.
Pupils should explore possible ways of grouping a wide selection of living things that include animals. The Carroll diagrams, classification key and Venn diagrams has been designed to allow pupils to identify differences between vertebrate groups. The Venn diagrams are a resource to assess the pupils knowledge and for them to record the similarities and differences between different vertebrate groups. The activities have been specifically designed to provide the scaffolding needed for pupils to put vertebrate animals into groups such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Pupils are given scientific words to read and opportunities to spell scientific vocabulary correctly to build their confidence and to use their growing spelling knowledge in a scientific context. The word list, phonetic sounds and definitions have been provided which could be used during their weekly spelling test.
The students will record their findings using simple scientific language and by completing keys and tables.
In this second lesson pupils should be taught to:
• Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
• Use a keys, tables and diagrams to help group animals
• Identify and name a variety of living things from their local and wider environment
The following summary is based on notes and guidance from the National Curriculum.
The pupils will be classifying living things and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions, discussing their findings with peers and the staff. Instead of using written methods discussion could also be assessed through a snowballing activity, one student stays at the station and describes their ideas to other students as they rotate around the classroom.
The pupils can use the animal adaptation card sort to classifying vertebrate groups focusing on their features. The pupils can use the card sort activity if their knowledge of animals is limited, alternatively be provided with the blank table and prompts if there knowledge is more in depth. The pupils carry out simple comparisons using Venn diagrams to compare and contrast different animals with certain features. This builds upon the knowledge learned in lesson one and will reinforce how classification of different animals with backbones can be performed. This uses Ebbinghaus pedagogy theory about memory and current scientific research that repetition of the material in a different context or activity will aid memory retention.
The resources can be used as a stimulus to talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying. They should begin to look for naturally occurring patterns and relationships between animals that share similar features.
The animal habitats activity can be used in conjunction with the animal cards. The students decided where the animals would live based on their features (adaptations). The activity gives the opportunity to describe / justify why they have decided each animal would be found in that habitat based on its features.
The last activity involves the use of Venn diagrams, they have been designed to allow pupils to compare and contrast animals based on their adaptations. These diagrams focus on the features of animals and the pupils can place the animal cards or animal pictures in the different regions. To save printing this activity can be used on the board and pupils simply copy the activity int their books. The Venn diagrams are a resource to assess the pupils knowledge and for them to record the similarities and differences and see which animals share certain features.
